If Terminator was a book before it was a film, or if it was based on a book? My dissertation advisor asked me, and I have no idea, so I thought I would throw out the question in case anyone out there knew.

John Klima

Posted on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 04:49 am:

Dora (do people call you Dora, for some reason I'm always compelled to, please correct me if that was presumptive):

It was apparently taken from a Harlan Ellison short story/screen play:

And, the credit was originally uncredited, although James Cameron did have a dedication/thank you to the Harlan Ellison and his writing even on the original cut of the film.

JK

John Klima

Posted on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 04:54 am:

From imdb again:

"Science fiction author Harlan Ellison sued Cameron, claiming that the film was plagiarized from the two "Outer Limits, The" (1963) episodes that Ellison wrote, namely "Soldier" and "Demon With a Glass Hand". The concept of "Skynet" could also have been borrowed from an Ellison short story called "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream". The suit was settled out of court and newer prints of the film acknowledge Ellison."

JK

Theodora Goss

Posted on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 11:27 pm:

John:

Many, many thanks! I passed what you wrote along to my advisor, who said it was very helpful.

(And do call me Dora, though honestly I answer to almost any variation. A couple of people I know insist on calling me "Theodora." And I've gotten "Theo." I even once knew someone who called me "Teddy," not something I'd suggest to anyone who minds getting his or her shin kicked. I've also been asked if my parents wanted a boy. (It's a real name. It really is.) The one thing I've never been called is Theda, alas. It would have been so flapper, so silent screen. So not "Teddy." And this has been yet another largely irrelevant, late-night, ramble . . .)

Theodora Goss

Posted on Monday, November 01, 2004 - 11:14 am:

So, Joe Sutliff Sanders, who's been involved with the graduate student side of the International Convention on the Fantastic in the Arts for a while now, sent me an email asking if I had any suggestions for movies to show at this upcoming ICFA. The conference theme is "Blurring the Boundaries: Transrealism and Other Movements." Here's a short description:

"The focus of ICFA-26 is on the Transreal and other movements that encourage and embody the breaking and blurring of the boundaries between genders and genres, between reality and illusion, between the 'real' world and the possible worlds of the imagination. Such movements include the New Wave, Cyberpunk, Steampunk, the Interstitial Arts, Slipstream, the New Weird, and many more."

The graduate students are looking for a movie to show that could be called slipstream, interstitial, boundary-crossing, that sort of thing. It should be something not too obvious, not something you can easily find at your local Blockbuster.

Any suggestions? Movies are not at all my area of expertise, but a lot of people on Nightshade know movies well, so I thought I would ask!

Robert Burke Richardson

Posted on Thursday, November 04, 2004 - 11:57 pm:

^Not sure if the time-frame for recommendations has past, but here are a couple of French films that are off the beaten path:

'The Double Life of Veronique' by Krzyzstof Kieslowski (sadly not available on DVD)

'Eyes without a Face' by George Franju (written by Boileau and Narcrjac who wrote the story from which Hitchcock's 'Vertigo' was adapted) - this has just been released in a lovely new DVD edition by the Criterion Collection.

'Amelie' by Jean-Pierre Jeunet

'8 1/2' by Federico Fellini

'Oh Brother Where Art Thou?' by the Coen Brothers

'Mullholland Drive' by David Lynch (and just about anything else by Lynch)

'Intacto' by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

'Heavenly Creatures' by Peter Jackson

'Donnie Darko' by Richard Kelly

'The Magician' by Ingmar Bergman

Theodora Goss

Posted on Thursday, November 18, 2004 - 10:17 pm:

Robert and Philip,

Thank you so much for the suggestions! I sent them on to Joe and the ICFA graduate students list. I really, really appreciate your help.

Meanwhile, this wretched cold lingers, and I can barely speak. My mother, being a doctor, didn't believe in over-the-counter medications. We suffered through colds naturally. Today, after a particularly bad coughing episode, Kendrick told me to try Robitussin. I've never tasted anything so foul in my life. Yet another encounter with the popular culture I missed as a child. (But the cough did get better, so that's one for artificial cherry flavor.)

Cherry my eye-the stuff's disgusting. Any self-respecting cherry would shrivel up if it came within 5 miles of that concoction. It does help sometimes, though.

Hope you get feeling better soon.

Celia Marsh

Posted on Friday, November 19, 2004 - 08:22 am:

my friends were once experimenting with mixed drinks, namely various alcohols and grenadine, and everything they made ended up tasting just like cough syrup. It was really impressive, considering that none of the individual elements tasted anything at all like cough syrup.

I hate the taste of Robitussin so much that I can only take it standing over a sink so that the moment I swallow, I can rinse my mouth out. I must say, the flavor is definately a deterrent to any thoughts I might have had of abusing cough syrup, if ever I had any.

philipfoster

Posted on Friday, November 19, 2004 - 02:15 pm:

Hope the colds better - I recommend watching lots of old Hollywood films and drinking plenty of hot tea. (Just got rid of a cold myself after three wretched weeks). PS Check out my reply in the 'transrealism' thread sometime when you're feeling better.

Theodora Goss

Posted on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - 09:27 pm:

Many thanks! The cough is almost gone, and I've substituted echinacea orange spice cough drops, which aren't nearly as offensive.

So what's the deal with maraschino cherries? (I've spelled that wrong, haven't I? Marischino? Or did I spell it right?) I still remember how shocked I was the first time I tasted them. We used to buy chocolates with cherries in them for Christmas, sour cherries soaked in something wildly alcoholic. They were from Hungary, and they were to die for. Then one year we bought inexpensive American ones, and the cherries inside were these odd sugary orbs, the red of Rudolph the Cartoon Reindeer's nose. (Though you'll find plenty of bad candy from Hungary too--I'm certainly not priviledging its sweets.) Now that is a cherry that has lost all self-respect.

I also remember the first time I drank a Long Island Iced Tea, in college. Blame my sheltered childhood: I was actually innocent enough to think that it was iced tea.

Theodora Goss

Posted on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - 09:30 pm:

p.s. Thanks for the transrealism post, Philip! I have part of a response. And I'm working on the other part . . .

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